<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Peek-A-Boo! by mightypocketcow</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23029369">Peek-A-Boo!</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/mightypocketcow/pseuds/mightypocketcow'>mightypocketcow</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sanders Sides (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age Regression/De-Aging, Platonic LAMP - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:35:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,352</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23029369</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/mightypocketcow/pseuds/mightypocketcow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a fic I wrote for rileylastname on tumblr for the fic exchange arranged by the-prince-and-the-emo, almost two years ago!  The only Sanders Sides fic I've ever written.</p>
<p>Thomas is experiencing some heavy anxiety, and as a result, Virgil has some... interesting side effects occurring.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anxiety | Virgil &amp; Creativity | Roman &amp; Logic | Logan &amp; Morality | Patton, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>148</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Peek-A-Boo!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Virgil?  Virge, where are you?”  Patton calls, wandering through the house.  “Virgil!”</p>
<p>“Hey, Patton, what’s wrong?”  Roman pokes his head out of a doorway; Patton couldn’t bring himself to try and remember which room that was.</p>
<p>“I can’t find Virgil, and Thomas has been really upset lately.  I need to know what’s going on.”</p>
<p>“I’m sure Mister Panic At The Everywhere is perfectly fine.”  </p>
<p>“Roman!  This is serious!  Thomas hasn’t been himself in days, and he’s starting to act… oddly.”</p>
<p>“Oddly like what?”  Logan, suddenly appearing behind Patton, chimes in.</p>
<p>“Almost like he’s a child.”</p>
<p>“You mean reverting to childhood interests and behaviours?”</p>
<p>“Yes.  What does that mean for Thomas?”  Patton asks.</p>
<p>“It’s an unhealthy coping mechanism called regression.  Thomas must be dealing with more difficulties than we three can see.  We must find Virgil, now.”</p>
<p>“Come on, folks, it’ll be alright.  Thomas can get through this!  We don’t need Virgil’s help.”  Roman exclaims, louder than he needs to be as usual.</p>
<p>“Even if we don’t need his help, he may need ours.”  Logan states.</p>
<p>“Fine.”  Roman grumbles.</p>
<p>The three of them wander the house separately (“It’ll be better if we split up!”), searching everywhere they can think of for Virgil.  It was almost fruitless until…</p>
<p>“Virgil!?”  Patton screeches.</p>
<p>The other two sides dash to see the issue, and Roman gasps.  Sitting in the corner, nibbling on the sleeve of his oversized sweater, was a very tiny toddler with dark eye makeup covering half his face.</p>
<p>“This makes no sense!”  Roman blinks.  “He was not like this when I last saw him last night.”</p>
<p>“This makes perfect sense, Roman.  If Thomas, through his anxiety, is regressing to a childlike manner, Virgil must be as well.  Except with Virgil, he is physically representing Thomas’ anxiety and how he is coping.  Therefore, as long as Thomas is dealing with whatever he is dealing with, Virgil will remain like this until Thomas finds a new coping mechanism.”</p>
<p>“Princey, you’ve got to do something!”  Patton pleads.</p>
<p>“Why me?”</p>
<p>“Because you represent Thomas’ creativity.  You are the most likely of all of us to come up with a new coping strategy to help him focus his energy elsewhere.”</p>
<p>“Fine.”  Roman grumbles again as he stalks off to find Thomas; why did he have to do everything?!</p>
<p>“What do we do in the meantime?”  Patton asks, crouching in front of tiny Virgil, who was babbling away in gibberish.</p>
<p>“I suppose we take care of Virgil.”</p>
<p>Patton reaches forward and scoops up the toddler.  Virgil giggles, grabbing for Patton’s glasses.</p>
<p>“On the positive side of things, since we are part of Thomas’ personality, we do not necessarily need food.  Like the Crystal Gems of Steven Universe, we can eat if we choose to but it is not required.”  Logan murmurs.  “Therefore we do not need to worry about feeding Virgil, and by extension we do not need to worry about changing any diapers.  We just need to keep him entertained or if may affect Thomas badly.  His anxiety needs to be comfortable or he is not comfortable.”</p>
<p>Patton had stopped listening; he was sitting on the couch, playing Peek-A-Boo with Virgil.  </p>
<p>Logan sighed.  “It may not be as difficult as I imagined it would be.”</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>“Patton!  Hey, Pat!  I need you.”  Roman bursts through the door.</p>
<p>“Hey, shh, Virgil is taking a nap.”  Patton whispers, running his fingers through the hair of the toddler whose head is on his lap.</p>
<p>“Sorry.  But Thomas is having difficulty with the coping mechanisms I have recommended, and he needs reminding of why he needs to take care of himself.”</p>
<p>“But shouldn’t I be the one helping with that?  I don’t want to be alone with a child.”  Logan protests.</p>
<p>“Not right now.  He may need you later, but he needs a morale boost, and who better to do that than Morality himself?”  Roman winks at Patton, who flushes.  </p>
<p>“Alright, Logan.  Make sure he doesn’t get into anything dangerous.”  Patton says as he carefully lifts Virgil’s head and replaces his lap with a couch pillow.</p>
<p>“But I don’t know how to take care of a child!”</p>
<p>“You’ll figure it out.”  Patton smiles as he leaves with Roman.</p>
<p>Logan gulps as he looks at the sleeping toddler next to him.</p>
<p>Suddenly, Virgil begins to stir.  He opens his eyes and looks around and, not seeing Patton, begins to sniffle.  </p>
<p>“Oh no.  Oh no he’s going to cry.  I don’t know how to deal with a crying child.”</p>
<p>Virgil’s sniffles get louder, and his face scrunches up as he begins to whimper.</p>
<p>“No, no!  Virgil, it’s okay!  Patton isn’t gone forever, he’ll be back!”</p>
<p>It doesn’t help; Virgil starts crying.  Loudly.</p>
<p>Logan feels like crying too, honestly.  He slowly picks up Virgil, bringing him onto his lap.  “It’s okay, Virge.”</p>
<p>After a few moments and a few pats on the back, Virgil is reduced to sniffles and whimpers for now.  He stares at Logan’s face intently, blinking back tears.  Logan gets an idea.</p>
<p>He takes off his glasses, setting them aside, and covers his face with his hands.  “Where’s Virgil?”  He removes his hands quickly.  “Peek-A-Boo!”</p>
<p>Virgil squeals, clapping his little hands together, and Logan smiles brightly.  He’s figured out how to entertain the child!  </p>
<p>He covers his face once again.  “Where’s Virgil?”</p>
<p>The toddler on his lap babbles incoherently, but Logan can tell he is excited.</p>
<p>“Peek-A-Boo!”</p>
<p>Virgil laughs; Logan thinks it may be the cutest sound in the world.</p>
<p>He continues playing peek-a-boo for about half an hour.  Then, much to his dismay, Virgil begins to get bored and starts tugging at his tie.</p>
<p>“No, no, that’s my tie.  No touchy.”</p>
<p>Virgil starts to sniffle again, indicating an incoming sob fest.</p>
<p>“Okay, okay!  Touchy is okay!”</p>
<p>As Virgil tugs at the tie, occasionally needing an intervention from Logan as he tries to stick it into his mouth, the logical man sighs.  He couldn’t think of anything else to entertain the toddler with… oh, wait!  Aren’t there television channels for children?</p>
<p>Logan reaches for the remote and turns on the television, turning to a channel currently playing Dora The Explorer.  “I remember this show…” He mutters as Virgil claps his hands again and begins to pay attention to the show instead of Logan’s tie.</p>
<p>After Dora was over, some show Logan didn’t recognize came on.  He tried to find another channel playing children’s shows but was unsuccessful until he found Cartoon Network.  </p>
<p>
  <em>Adventure Time, come on, grab your friends!  We’ll go to very distant lands!</em>
</p>
<p>Virgil claps again, babbling along to the tune of the song.  </p>
<p>“Incredible.  You must retain some of your memories as a toddler.  I only hope Steven Universe comes on at some point, you love that show.”</p>
<p>Several hours later, when Patton and Roman return, they find Virgil, no longer a toddler but now a young child of about 6 years of age, with his head in Logan’s lap, and Logan’s head leaning back into the back of the couch.  They had fallen asleep after reruns of Teen Titans Go had started to play.  While Patton dashes forward to sit next to Logan on the couch, snuggling into his side, Roman reaches for the remote, shaking his head affectionately.</p>
<p>As he is about to shut off the television, he hears a familiar tune and sees a familiar sight.</p>
<p>
  <em>We… Are the Crystal Gems!</em>
</p>
<p>Logan and Virgil both sit up straight instantly, turning their gazes to the television.</p>
<p>“We’ll always save the day!”  Patton sings, pumping his fist into the air.  </p>
<p>“And if you think we can’t, we’ll always find a way!”  Virgil waves his hands enthusiastically.  </p>
<p>“That’s why the people of this world believe in…”  Roman chuckles.</p>
<p>“Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl!”  Virgil and Patton sing together.</p>
<p>“And Steven!”  Logan exclaims excitedly.</p>
<p>Roman begins to speak.  “Logan, we’ve figured out the issues, and Thomas is working on some new coping methods.  He may need your help to stay on task, but Virgil seems to be recovering.”</p>
<p>“Shhhh…”  Logan says, pointing to the screen.  “It’s <em>The Question</em>.  This is my favourite episode.”</p>
<p>The Prince shakes his head.  It can wait eleven minutes…</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! Be safe and healthy, and have a great day!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>